★★★☆☆ What We Forget, What We Forgive, by Seanan McGuire
Two ghosts and a Shadow Sorceress
What We Forget, What We Forgive
Seanan McGuire
Two ghosts and a Shadow Sorceress
“What We Forget, What We Forgive” is Seanan McGuire’s Patreon reward for November, 2025. She introduces it as follows:
Image: A fawnpoint Ragdoll curled atop orange and blue blankets. She does not look thrilled to be photographed.)
And now, for November, a ghost story. I was going to hold this one for a few months, but some of y’all were concerned about a perceived continuity gap from a few stories ago, and so we’re checking in on Rose Marshall, Mary Dunlavy, and...Laura Campbell?
Well, this certainly won’t be a problem, at all. Set in the Ghost Roads continuity, will make more sense if you’ve read at least up to Girl in the Green Silk Gown.
Happy post-Halloween.
McGuire often uses her Patreon stories to fill in gaps in the backstories of her conventionally published novel series, those being mostly October Daye and Incryptid. When I say Incryptid, I am also including her Ghost Roads series, which takes place in the same world and is somewhat intertwined. Both October Daye and Incryptid have a a deep history that is barely hinted at in the main series novels, but which is helpful in fully understanding them.
The Incryptid series is about the the Price Family of North America and their care for/interaction with cryptids and other fantastic entities such as ghosts, witches, etc. The main series of novels begins with Discount Armageddon, whose hero is Verity Price, a member of the fifth generation of the North American family. Most of the subsequent series novels are are also about the fifth and (recently) the sixth generation.
I know all this because McGuire has written dozens of stories (and one short novel) about earlier generations, especially the key figure Alice Price-Healy, who is the sole surviving member of the third generation. Most of these stories can be downloaded free from her website or, for a price, from her Patreon page.
Recently McGuire has been filling in details surrounded the birth of Alice’s children. Alice had two kids, Kevin and Jane Rose, whom she abandoned to save her husband Thomas from banishment to another dimension. (It’s a long story.) Kevin and Jane were left in the care of Alice’s best friend Laura Campbell and two ghosts, Mary Dunlavy and Rose Marshall. (Laura is an umbramancer, and since that is more or less Latin for “Shadow Sorcerer”, I called her that in the title for this review.) Diligent Incryptid followers will know that both Mary and Rose have seen changes in their circumstances in recent novels. This story, however, takes place fairly deep in the past (1920s to 1960s) and we are dealing with O.G. Mary (Crossroads ghost and Price family baby-sitter) and Rose (hitchhiking ghost).
It is told mostly from Rose’s point of view. I like Mary and Rose a lot, so I enjoyed this.